Update: Restoration Complete and back to Blogging

Update 11/11/2015: Hey everyone….Although it is much later than I expected, I am officially back to blogging. Posts will begin again next week and some of the upcoming topics include:

Joy, faith, fragrances, epic journeys, seeds, and powerful weapons.

I also expect to have some guest posts from time to time.

These posts may have a bit of a different spin, so I’d love to hear your comments and input! And also if you read a post you enjoy, please do share 🙂

A personal update:

The restoration is complete, though it took place in an entirely different location. In early September, I planted about 2000 underwater plants in clear spring-fed river called Gum Slough (left) in southwest Florida. So far they are holding up well and spreading like wildfire! We hope to follow up this planting with a more “complete” restoration down the road which will include algae removal, more plantings, and adding a good crowd of native snails to the ecosystem. After this happens, I hope to have some solid before and after pictures!

Below is my original post from when I began this blogging siesta if you are confused by anything I just mentioned. Looking forward to getting back to writing 🙂

–Joelle

My original April post:

Hey everyone, just wanted to drop a quick note for any of you who follow that I will be taking a short blog break for the next month or two.

In the coming weeks I’ll be doing an underwater restoration planting and research project along the coast of Florida! Although I’ve done quite a few restoration plantings before, this will be my first attempt at underwater planting, so it will be interesting to see what hurdles lie ahead 🙂 The steep learning curve means I’ll be giving it my full attention for a while and will plan to be back to writing by sometime toward the end of May.

The below map shows Kings Bay, the area I’ll be working in. It’s the most important area for manatee protection in Florida (often over 600 can be found in the bay.) The plants provide a great food source for the manatees and also boost the ecosystem in Kings Bay by improving water clarity and providing fish habitat. (For the curious, here’s more interesting info on Kings Bay and some of the conservation issues). I’m looking forward to the opportunity!

Image credit: US Geological Survey

Above is a photo I recently took of some native eelgrass (the species I’ll be planting) and a manatee while snorkeling at one of my research sites.

If you would like to be notified when the next post arrives, the easiest way would be to subscribe by email on the right.